


Of Rules and Forests

by tripping_sideways



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, F/F, Happy Ending, I shouldn't be suprised, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, wow that's an actual tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:21:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25496758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tripping_sideways/pseuds/tripping_sideways
Summary: At night she dreams of her mother wearing a daisy crown, laughing and running through the forest. Bare feet snapping twigs carelessly. It seems wrong. Maria never saw her mother happy.
Relationships: Maria Reynolds/Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	Of Rules and Forests

**Author's Note:**

> This piece of writing is heavily based on this If you read it first this makes more sense.

Maria is five when she first starts to grasp the rules. They are not all spoken but they are all there. Hanging heavy and silent in the air. Invisible but potent. Like a heavy fragrance on a summer day. Maria is five when she is first told not to enter the forest. She doesn't understand yet. She will.

Her father tells her, “there are things in there that would eat a young girl like you alive.”

Maria is eight when her mother drags her away from a street vendor. It’s then she hears the second rule. 

“You see her fangs darling? Her too sharp teeth? There are witches and wild things in this world. Do not be tempted by them. You hear me darling?”

Maria nods. Tries not to think about her mother’s too sharp smile. Trembling limbs. Hidden bruises. Tries not to think about how no one else notices the things her mother does. Sharp teeth. Honeyed voices. Luscious hair and bright skin. Mara focuses on her sewing. On her cleaning. On her cooking. She tries not to think of young boys playing in the yard. Of young boys going near the forest. Of young boys daring each other to touch the tree trunks.

“You’ll be a good wife one day,” her mother says.

Maria is nine and twelve and thirteen when she learns the third rule. The girl has straw yellow hair in two braids down her back and speaks with a southern twang. The girl has raven black curls and ruby lips from stolen lipstick. The girl has piercing blue eyes and a melancholy smile. And she babbles about them to her mother when her father can’t hear. But all her mother asks about are boys and despite this all Maria notices are girls and her Mother’s bruises. Despite this she learns the third rule; don’t fall for girls and pushes all her other feelings down into the depths of her heart. They will never see the light of day she promises herself. It almost sounds true.

Maria is fourteen when her mother dies. They don’t have enough money to pay the doctor. Suddenly she is the one with a too sharp smile. Trembling limbs. Hidden bruises. She tries not to think of the forest. Of the witches and wild things. Of straw colored hair and ruby lips and piercing blue eyes. Maria does her chores.

Maria is sixteen. Her father has found her a husband. He is not a fairy tale prince but no one is Maria reminds herself. Her heart doesn't long for him but her heart has never longed for boys so it will all be okay. It will all be okay. Maybe she’s broken. Maybe that’s why she doesn't like boys. It sounds false even to her own ears.

Maria is seventeen. Suddenly it’s her wedding day. She convinces herself to be happy. She is happy. It doesn't last. James Reynolds is another version of her father. Alcoholic breath. Easy anger. Heavy hands. Loud bellows. Maria can’t stop thinking of the forest. Of witches and wild things. Of southern twangs and raven curls and of melancholy smiles. At night she dreams of her mother wearing a daisy crown, laughing and running through the forest. Bare feet snapping twigs carelessly. It seems wrong. Maria never saw her mother happy.

Maria is nineteen and the girl is buying eggs. Inspecting them for cracks before placing them in a hand woven basket already full of veggies. The girl has too sharp teeth. A honeyed voice. Luscious hair and bright skin. The girl also has a smile. Girls don’t smile in Maria’s village. Not like that.

One day Maria’s hands are trembling so bad she almost drops her sack full of potatoes. The girl who frequents the marketplace catches her hands.

“Steady now” the girl’s voice of honey drips.

Maria dreams of those words for weeks. She reviews her rules. 

#1. Do not enter the forest. There are things in there that would eat a young girl like you alive.

#2. There are witches and wild things in this world. They speak with voices of honey and song, and look like visions of goddesses. Do not be tempted.

#3. Do not fall for girls who have forests in their eyes and wilderness in their veins. Do not fall for girls who cannot be kept in gilded cages and convention. Do not fall for girls at all.

The girl smells like earth. Like greenery. The girl's eyes have forests in them. Maria knows better but she is falling hard and fast. Harder and faster than Reynold’s hands on a bad night. She makes a choice.

The girl, Eliza, leads Maria into the forest. Towards the lake where she lives with her sisters.

“They’re not my real sisters, but they’re my family. Y’a know?”

“I know” Maria responds “but I wonder why I was told not to enter the forest and be weary of witches and wild things and to not fall for girls”

Eliza pauses halting in the middle of emerald light filtering down from the forest canopy. Her bear feet dig into the earth.

“It’s because they’re scared. Things and people enter the forest and they come back changed or not at all. They don’t want little girls to change, they want to mould them. They realise once you’re a witch and a wild thing you’re not coming back. People are scared of change so they tell lies to stay comfortable. But the truth is there is nothing that can hurt us in this forest. There never was.”


End file.
